Mid-Miocene to recent tectonic evolution of the Punta Stilo Swell (Calabrian Arc, southern Italy): An effect of Calabrian Arc migration

Abstract

The development of Punta Stilo Swell (PSS), a submerged lobate-shaped promontory located in the Crotone-Spartivento Basin, is inferred to be closely linked to the Calabrian Arc kinematics since mid-Miocene onward. The latter consists of an alternation between long-term phases of subsidence related to forward migration of the Calabrian accretionary complex, and short-term compressional-transpressional phases, characterized by episodes of uplift and formation of regional unconformities, in a context of stopping or slowdown of Calabrian accretionary complex migration. In particular, the study area is supposed to have respectively experienced phases of compressional and extensional tectonics during late Messinian and early Pliocene, which likely produced a reactivation of inherited compressional and extensional structures. Late Pliocene/Pleistocene transtensional tectonics is documented along the offshore extension of the Soverato-Lamezia Fault Zone (SLFZ), in the N sector of the PSS. The resulting physiographic modifications associated with such compressional, extensional and transtensional tectonics is believed to have controlled the accumulation of the thick Plio-Pleistocene succession of the PSS. The northern continental slope is inferred to be the result of late Pliocene/Pleistocene transtensional tectonics occurred along the SLFZ, whereas the shelf break is considered the result of an early Pliocene extensional tectonics. The considerable steepness (>10°) of the southern and eastern continental slope of the PSS is associated with the late Messinian compressional tectonic activity and is marked by the occurrence of slope failure-associated events.